Technology Status of an Effusion Cooled CMC Rocket Combustion Chamber

Propulsion systems are an essential key for efficient future space transportation systems (STS) and the feasibility of advanced vehicle design concepts. Beside efficiency, safe and reliable operations at significant reduced costs are a fundamental request to any kind of future propulsion system and STS, respectively. Today’s regenerative cooled cryogenic thrust chambers rely on a metallic design and they are highly optimized thus showing only minor improvement potential. An approach followed by DLR since some years is the realization of a revolutionary thrust chamber concept based on effusion cooling and use of high performance composites and porous ceramic matrix composites (CMC). Various functional demonstrators named V01-V03 were tested at the M3 test facility of DLR at the site of Lampoldshausen at typical combustion pressure levels of approximately 1MPa. A recent test campaign of an entire effusion cooled C/C thrust chamber contour at the European high-pressure H2/O2 test facility P8 in Lampoldshausen demonstrated successfully the functionality of this technology approach at relevant pressure levels up to 8 MPa and typical hot run test durations of 60 seconds. Summarizing the results achieved so far throughout this campaign an important development milestone and breakthrough of this new thrust chamber concept could be reached